DVD PICK OF THE WEEK
NIGHT OF THE CREEPS (Sony
Pictures Home Entertainment): This freewheeling,
cult-friendly gem was one of the
unsung sci-fi/horror classics of the ’80s —
a fond throwback to the drive-in B-movie
era (replete with nods and in-jokes) that
never quite found its audience. Now, writer
Fred Dekker’s 1986 directorial debut bows
on DVD and Blu-ray in a delightful special
edition that includes audio commentaries,
retrospective documentaries and more.
An all-American, small-town college
campus is the setting of these weird and
wild proceedings — which involve a
decades-old axe murder, some meanspirited
freshman hazing involving a
cryogenically frozen corpse and alien
slugs which have a nasty habit of gestating
within their (human) hosts after entering
the victim’s mouth. In this case, heads
don’t roll — they explode.
Jason Lively and Steve Marshall play
the bumbling freshmen who unwittingly
unleash the threat upon the campus and then
must destroy it, assisted by pretty sorority
girl Jill Whitlow and gruff homicide cop
Tom Atkins (in a career performance),
whose past ties directly into the grisly
goings-on. Night of the Creeps can be taken
as a straight shocker or as a sly riff on the
genre, and works just fine either way. It’s
a true winner that should finally find the
mainstream following it has deserved for
more than 20 years. Like the man says,
“Thrill me.” It does. Rated R. ***½
ALSO ON DVD
“CAGNEY & LACEY”: THE MENOPAUSE YEARS (S’More Entertainment): A collection of all four made-for-TV films reuniting Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly, reprising their Emmywinning series roles as New York detectives Chris Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey: “Cagney & Lacey: The Return” (1994), “Cagney & Lacey: Together Again” and “Cagney & Lacey: The View Through the Glass Ceiling” (both 1995) and “Cagney & Lacey: True Convictions” (1996). John Karlen also returns as Mary Beth’s husband, Harvey. The boxed set retails for $39.95 and “C&L: The Return” is also available as a single disc ($12.95 retail).
“CRASH”: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (Starz Entertainment/ Anchor Bay Entertainment): Dennis Hopper heads an ensemble cast in this Starz Entertainment series dramatizing the randomly intersecting lives of Los Angelinos, based on the Oscar-winning 2004 film. All 13 episodes from the 2008- ’09 season are included in this four-disc set, which retails for $59.97 (DVD) or $79.97 (Blu-ray).
DRAG ME TO HELL (Universal Studios Home Entertainment): Sam Raimi revisits his horror roots with this fast-paced, entertaining shocker in which poor Alison Lohman finds herself the victim of a curse that will see her soul damned to hell in three days’ time — and the clock is ticking. Rated PG-13 (also available in an unrated director’s cut). ***
GRACE (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Writer/director Paul Solet’s award-winning feature debut stars Jordan Ladd as a young widow whose newborn baby smells odd, attracts flies, and has a taste for blood. (Insert your own “dead baby” joke here.) Clearly inspired by Polanski’s Repulsion with a little Rosemary’s Baby thrown in, this imperfect but ambitious shocker definitely boasts its share of chilling, queasy moments. Solet is a talent to watch. Rated R. **½
THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Rob Zombie served as director, executive producer and story writer for this animated adaptation of his underground comic book, featuring the voice of screenwriter Tom Papa as the title character, a maniacal, masked ex-wrestler who does battle with the forces of evil, such as the diabolical Dr. Satan (voice by Paul Giamatti). This raunchy but fast-moving little number is about as much for kids as Fritz the Cat was, but its many in-jokes should appeal to the Zombie faithful. Other familiar voices include those of Rosario Dawson, Laraine Newman, Danny Trejo, Geoffrey Lewis, Ken Foree, Dee Wallace, Sid Haig and, of course, Zombie’s wife Sheri Moon Zombie. The original songs by Hard ‘n Phirm are a highlight. Rated R. **½
“HEROES”: SEASON 3 (Universal Studios Home Entertainment): The battle between good and evil continues in all 25 episodes from the 2008-’09 season of the popular, award-winning prime-time NBCTV fantasy series whose ensemble cast includes Hayden Panettiere, Adrian Pasdar, Masi Oka, Milo Ventimiglia and Jack Coleman. This six-DVD boxed set retails for $59.98 (DVD) or $79.98 (Blu-ray).
HOWARD THE DUCK (Universal Studios Home Entertainment): A “special edition” of the colossally catastrophic 1986 sci-fi comedy based on the Marvel Comics character, a denizen of “DuckLand” who is whisked to our world and forced to save it from… something. The human characters are played by the likes of Lea Thompson, Tim Robbins and Jeffrey Jones, while Chip Zien supplies the voice of Howard. It’s hard to believe this film got a PG rating, and harder (maybe) to believe it was even made. The executive producer was George Lucas. The screenwriters were Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, the latter also directing… and he hasn’t directed a film since. A film of many points — all of them low. No stars.
LIES AND ILLUSIONS (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Pseudo-Hitchcockian spyjinks with Christian Slater as a self-help author swept up in the search for a suitcase of stolen gems. Christa Campbell and Sarah Ann Schultz are the ladies in Slater’s life, neither what they appear, and Cuba Gooding Jr. has fun as the bad guy. The (better) second half adopts a light-hearted tone, and is capped off by a pretty good car chase. Rated R. **
SHADOWHEART (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Producer and story writer Justin Ament plays a hard-bitten Civil War veteran and bounty hunter bent on avenging the death of his preacher father (William Sadler) years before at the hands of a sadistic land baron (Angus Macfadyen) in a New Mexico town. This sincere, low-budget Western could have done with tighter pacing, but a familiar supporting cast (Charles Napier, Courtney Gains, Rance Howard, Ross Hagen and Daniel Baldwin) and Macfadyen’s scenery-chewing turn make it a passable diversion for Western fans. Director/editor/screenwriter Dean Alioto also co-stars. Rated PG-13. **
THE SHORTCUT (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Scary Madison Productions, an offshoot of Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, produced this low-budget chiller (co-written by Sandler’s brother Scott) about a group of teenagers who investigate the legend of a neighborhood shortcut… and soon wish they hadn’t. Better-made and betteracted than the standard scare fare, with a neat twist at the end and an effective turn by Raymond J. Barry as the mysterious neighbor who lives near the shortcut. A few slow patches but a big improvement for Nicholaus Goossen, who previously directed the atrocious Grandma’s Boy for Happy Madison. Rated PG-13. **½
STRIKE (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Ross Patterson wrote and stars in this predictable sports comedy about a slacker who finds fame and fortune on the professional bowling circuit, until his success alienates both his girlfriend (topbilled Tara Reid) and his best bud (Clayne Crawford). Some 15 producers are credited, including Reid and her real-life brother, first-time director Tommy Reid. A lot of familiar faces turn up: Ray Wise, Vinnie Jones, Vincent Pastore, Rachel Hunter, Robyn Lively, John DiMaggio and Robert Carradine. A few laughs, but this is no Kingpin. Even the end-credit outtakes are dull. Originally titled 7-10 Split. *½
TERROR PACK (Palisades Tartan): A three-DVD boxed set ($39.99 retail) of horror thrillers from abroad: Vincent Cassel stars in Sheitan (France); Frank van Geloven and and Edwin Visser co-wrote and co-directed Slaughter Night (Denmark); Koji Shiraishi co-wrote and directed Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (Japan). Each film is presented in its native language with subtitles, and each DVD comes with special features. UFC 100: MAKING HISTORY (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Brock Lesnar battles Frank Mir, and Georges “Rush” St-Pierre takes on Thiago “Pitbull” Alves in this sports documentary that chronicles the mixed martial-arts Ultimate Fighting Championship. The special-edition DVD retails for $19.97 and the Blu-ray for $29.97.
THE WES CRAVEN HORROR COLLECTION (Universal Studios Home Entertainment): A self-explanatory DVD triple feature ($19.95 retail): Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae and the muchmissed Paul Winfield star in Craven’s effective 1987 adaptation of Wade Davis’ non-fiction book The Serpent and the Rainbow (***); Michael Murphy heads the cast of Craven’s loopy but likable 1989 opus Shocker (**½), which I saw with a particularly animated opening-night crowd (“Get real!”) in a downtown Philadelphia theater during my college daze; and Craven’s ambitious but muddled 1991 thriller The People Under the Stairs (*½). All three films are, appropriately enough, rated R.
WILLIAM CASTLE FILM COLLECTION (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment): Producer William Castle (1914-1977) was renowned for his shameless but inventive showmanship in a career strewn with lurid, sometimes effective and often profitable, low-budget chillers and thrillers, many of which featured gimmicks dreamed up by Castle himself. This collection boasts eight of Castle’s classics, all of which he also directed: Vincent Price stars in The Tingler (1959); 13 Ghosts (1960) was filmed in the process of “Illusion-O” and features Martin Milner and Margaret Hamilton; Glenn Corbett and Patricia Breslin star in Homicidal (1961); Guy Rolfe essays the title role of Mr. Sardonicus (1962); Tom Poston and Jim Backus star in the light-hearted Zotz! (also ’62); 13 Frightened Girls (1963) stars Murray Hamilton (not as one of the girls, of course); Poston returns for the 1963 version of The Old Dark House, based on JB Priestley’s classic novel and co-produced with Britain’s Hammer Studios; and Joan Crawford and Diane Baker star in Strait-Jacket (1964), written by Robert Bloch. This boxed set, which retails for $80.95, includes retrospective shorts, audio commentaries (featuring filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz and Castle’s daughter, producer Terry Castle), bonus episodes of the “Ghost Story” anthology TV series produced by Castle, Schwarz’ award-winning 2007 documentary feature Spine Tingler!: The William Castle Story, and much more.
ALSO ON DVD
“CAGNEY & LACEY”: THE MENOPAUSE YEARS (S’More Entertainment): A collection of all four made-for-TV films reuniting Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly, reprising their Emmywinning series roles as New York detectives Chris Cagney and Mary Beth Lacey: “Cagney & Lacey: The Return” (1994), “Cagney & Lacey: Together Again” and “Cagney & Lacey: The View Through the Glass Ceiling” (both 1995) and “Cagney & Lacey: True Convictions” (1996). John Karlen also returns as Mary Beth’s husband, Harvey. The boxed set retails for $39.95 and “C&L: The Return” is also available as a single disc ($12.95 retail).
“CRASH”: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (Starz Entertainment/ Anchor Bay Entertainment): Dennis Hopper heads an ensemble cast in this Starz Entertainment series dramatizing the randomly intersecting lives of Los Angelinos, based on the Oscar-winning 2004 film. All 13 episodes from the 2008- ’09 season are included in this four-disc set, which retails for $59.97 (DVD) or $79.97 (Blu-ray).
DRAG ME TO HELL (Universal Studios Home Entertainment): Sam Raimi revisits his horror roots with this fast-paced, entertaining shocker in which poor Alison Lohman finds herself the victim of a curse that will see her soul damned to hell in three days’ time — and the clock is ticking. Rated PG-13 (also available in an unrated director’s cut). ***
GRACE (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Writer/director Paul Solet’s award-winning feature debut stars Jordan Ladd as a young widow whose newborn baby smells odd, attracts flies, and has a taste for blood. (Insert your own “dead baby” joke here.) Clearly inspired by Polanski’s Repulsion with a little Rosemary’s Baby thrown in, this imperfect but ambitious shocker definitely boasts its share of chilling, queasy moments. Solet is a talent to watch. Rated R. **½
THE HAUNTED WORLD OF EL SUPERBEASTO (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Rob Zombie served as director, executive producer and story writer for this animated adaptation of his underground comic book, featuring the voice of screenwriter Tom Papa as the title character, a maniacal, masked ex-wrestler who does battle with the forces of evil, such as the diabolical Dr. Satan (voice by Paul Giamatti). This raunchy but fast-moving little number is about as much for kids as Fritz the Cat was, but its many in-jokes should appeal to the Zombie faithful. Other familiar voices include those of Rosario Dawson, Laraine Newman, Danny Trejo, Geoffrey Lewis, Ken Foree, Dee Wallace, Sid Haig and, of course, Zombie’s wife Sheri Moon Zombie. The original songs by Hard ‘n Phirm are a highlight. Rated R. **½
“HEROES”: SEASON 3 (Universal Studios Home Entertainment): The battle between good and evil continues in all 25 episodes from the 2008-’09 season of the popular, award-winning prime-time NBCTV fantasy series whose ensemble cast includes Hayden Panettiere, Adrian Pasdar, Masi Oka, Milo Ventimiglia and Jack Coleman. This six-DVD boxed set retails for $59.98 (DVD) or $79.98 (Blu-ray).
HOWARD THE DUCK (Universal Studios Home Entertainment): A “special edition” of the colossally catastrophic 1986 sci-fi comedy based on the Marvel Comics character, a denizen of “DuckLand” who is whisked to our world and forced to save it from… something. The human characters are played by the likes of Lea Thompson, Tim Robbins and Jeffrey Jones, while Chip Zien supplies the voice of Howard. It’s hard to believe this film got a PG rating, and harder (maybe) to believe it was even made. The executive producer was George Lucas. The screenwriters were Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, the latter also directing… and he hasn’t directed a film since. A film of many points — all of them low. No stars.
LIES AND ILLUSIONS (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Pseudo-Hitchcockian spyjinks with Christian Slater as a self-help author swept up in the search for a suitcase of stolen gems. Christa Campbell and Sarah Ann Schultz are the ladies in Slater’s life, neither what they appear, and Cuba Gooding Jr. has fun as the bad guy. The (better) second half adopts a light-hearted tone, and is capped off by a pretty good car chase. Rated R. **
SHADOWHEART (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Producer and story writer Justin Ament plays a hard-bitten Civil War veteran and bounty hunter bent on avenging the death of his preacher father (William Sadler) years before at the hands of a sadistic land baron (Angus Macfadyen) in a New Mexico town. This sincere, low-budget Western could have done with tighter pacing, but a familiar supporting cast (Charles Napier, Courtney Gains, Rance Howard, Ross Hagen and Daniel Baldwin) and Macfadyen’s scenery-chewing turn make it a passable diversion for Western fans. Director/editor/screenwriter Dean Alioto also co-stars. Rated PG-13. **
THE SHORTCUT (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Scary Madison Productions, an offshoot of Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison Productions, produced this low-budget chiller (co-written by Sandler’s brother Scott) about a group of teenagers who investigate the legend of a neighborhood shortcut… and soon wish they hadn’t. Better-made and betteracted than the standard scare fare, with a neat twist at the end and an effective turn by Raymond J. Barry as the mysterious neighbor who lives near the shortcut. A few slow patches but a big improvement for Nicholaus Goossen, who previously directed the atrocious Grandma’s Boy for Happy Madison. Rated PG-13. **½
STRIKE (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Ross Patterson wrote and stars in this predictable sports comedy about a slacker who finds fame and fortune on the professional bowling circuit, until his success alienates both his girlfriend (topbilled Tara Reid) and his best bud (Clayne Crawford). Some 15 producers are credited, including Reid and her real-life brother, first-time director Tommy Reid. A lot of familiar faces turn up: Ray Wise, Vinnie Jones, Vincent Pastore, Rachel Hunter, Robyn Lively, John DiMaggio and Robert Carradine. A few laughs, but this is no Kingpin. Even the end-credit outtakes are dull. Originally titled 7-10 Split. *½
TERROR PACK (Palisades Tartan): A three-DVD boxed set ($39.99 retail) of horror thrillers from abroad: Vincent Cassel stars in Sheitan (France); Frank van Geloven and and Edwin Visser co-wrote and co-directed Slaughter Night (Denmark); Koji Shiraishi co-wrote and directed Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman (Japan). Each film is presented in its native language with subtitles, and each DVD comes with special features. UFC 100: MAKING HISTORY (Anchor Bay Entertainment): Brock Lesnar battles Frank Mir, and Georges “Rush” St-Pierre takes on Thiago “Pitbull” Alves in this sports documentary that chronicles the mixed martial-arts Ultimate Fighting Championship. The special-edition DVD retails for $19.97 and the Blu-ray for $29.97.
THE WES CRAVEN HORROR COLLECTION (Universal Studios Home Entertainment): A self-explanatory DVD triple feature ($19.95 retail): Bill Pullman, Cathy Tyson, Zakes Mokae and the muchmissed Paul Winfield star in Craven’s effective 1987 adaptation of Wade Davis’ non-fiction book The Serpent and the Rainbow (***); Michael Murphy heads the cast of Craven’s loopy but likable 1989 opus Shocker (**½), which I saw with a particularly animated opening-night crowd (“Get real!”) in a downtown Philadelphia theater during my college daze; and Craven’s ambitious but muddled 1991 thriller The People Under the Stairs (*½). All three films are, appropriately enough, rated R.
WILLIAM CASTLE FILM COLLECTION (Sony Pictures Home Entertainment): Producer William Castle (1914-1977) was renowned for his shameless but inventive showmanship in a career strewn with lurid, sometimes effective and often profitable, low-budget chillers and thrillers, many of which featured gimmicks dreamed up by Castle himself. This collection boasts eight of Castle’s classics, all of which he also directed: Vincent Price stars in The Tingler (1959); 13 Ghosts (1960) was filmed in the process of “Illusion-O” and features Martin Milner and Margaret Hamilton; Glenn Corbett and Patricia Breslin star in Homicidal (1961); Guy Rolfe essays the title role of Mr. Sardonicus (1962); Tom Poston and Jim Backus star in the light-hearted Zotz! (also ’62); 13 Frightened Girls (1963) stars Murray Hamilton (not as one of the girls, of course); Poston returns for the 1963 version of The Old Dark House, based on JB Priestley’s classic novel and co-produced with Britain’s Hammer Studios; and Joan Crawford and Diane Baker star in Strait-Jacket (1964), written by Robert Bloch. This boxed set, which retails for $80.95, includes retrospective shorts, audio commentaries (featuring filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz and Castle’s daughter, producer Terry Castle), bonus episodes of the “Ghost Story” anthology TV series produced by Castle, Schwarz’ award-winning 2007 documentary feature Spine Tingler!: The William Castle Story, and much more.
